Successful Campaign for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEB, Featuring Stars David Krumholtz, Ray Wise, Michael Cassidy. Producers To Be on Hand To Discuss How To Make a Successful Pitch that Gets the Attention of the Likes of Rainn Wilson.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEB

PRLog - April 4, 2014 - LOS ANGELES -- A campaign video dubbed the “best Kickstarter video ever” by staff members at Kickstarter.com will kick off the 18th annual incarnation of the First Glance Film Festival at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles tonight. Night of the Living Deb’s bootstrapped crowdfunder, made for next to nothing and now fully funded at $99,000, garnered the attention of Hollywood actors and movie buffs around the world with its innovative approach. Rather than the typical plea to camera or standard movie trailer format, the pitch video is presented as “found footage” about the making of a Kickstarter project about a zombie apocalypse – which is itself ironically and unpleasantly interrupted by a zombie apocalypse. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1364524925/night-of-the-living-deb-a-feature-film

It was enough to get the attention of actor David Krumholtz, who contacted the team to play a role in the feature. Perhaps best known for his starring turn as mathematical sleuth Charlie Eppes in the CBS hit series Numb3rs, Krumholtz’s credits include countless other standout roles in such films as Ray, Superbad, all three Harold & Kumar moviesand This Is the End, in which he played himself alongside Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and other celebs.

He joins cast members Ray Wise (Twin Peaks, Reaper) and Michael Cassidy (Men at Work, Smallville, The O.C.) in the crowdfunding campaign that got the attention of Kickstarter CEO Yancy Strickler, who reached out to the team personally to say the whole company was pulling for their project.

Wise and Cassidy appear in the initial promotional video as themselves, along with director/producer Kyle Rankin (Battle of Shaker Heights, Infestation) and writer Andy Selsor (BlackList script The Ex Factor), as well as a horde of walking dead and a host of special effects. The seemingly high production value of the campaign video caught the attention of MovieMaker Magazine, which featured it as its Crowdfunder of the Week in the middle of the campaign.

Many social media tastemakers got in on the action, including Rainn Wilson, who tweeted his 3 million+ followers: “Night of the Living DEB? SIGN ME UP.” He then proceeded to kick in a sizable donation himself, as did acclaimed director Jonathan Mostow and others of Hollywood’s elite. Eric Weiss, curator of the popular @ZombieRot Twitter feed among others, who tweeted to his 250k combined followers: “This is the best Kickstarter I've ever seen. It NEEDS to happen!”

In one example of a unique promotion, the campaign offered an autographed hard copy of the feature-length screenplay to the highest Kickstarter pledge of the day. A backer in France stepped up to the challenge, increasing his earlier pledge by $1,400 to beat out other backers and be the first to read the full story of Deb.

The filmmakers are still searching for the perfect actress to play the titular character. The romantic comedy zombie (rom-zom-com) portrays her as a lovable loser who wakes up one morning in the apartment of a handsome guy, unsure of how she got there and not terribly welcome. An awkward walk of shame ends in the discovery that the town is overrun by zombies, forcing her back into the arms of her hookup, who must now join her in a reluctant run for their lives.

“The indie film market is dauntingly competitive and saturated with product,” said Rankin. “We really wanted to make something that’d be entertaining in its own right, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive."

Wise, who has acted in five of Rankin’s previous films, said: “We have a hilarious script, a fabulous cast, and Kyle knows how to make the most of a micro-budget.”

The filmmakers hope to shoot in Maine this June, then return home to Los Angeles for post-production. While the campaign has slightly surpassed its ambitious $99,000 goal, a reneg by a current backer could put them back under the goal and out of luck according to Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing rules. The campaign ends, funded or not, on Saturday, April 5th, at 1:25pm PDT.

About the First Glance Film Festival

The festival, now in its 18th year, started in the basement of a tiny theater in Philadelphia, and now hosts annual events in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Las Vegas, in addition to several online short film competitions and web series compilations. www.firstglancefilms.com

The Los Angeles installation runs from April 4-6 at the state-of-the-art Regal Theaters at L.A. Live, and will include stars from multiple genres. The lineup is as follows: